US 97th Infantry Division

The 97th Infantry Division was a US Army infantry division that was active from 5 September to 20 November 1918 and from 25 February 1943 to 31 March 1946. The division was activated in New Mexico in 1918 during World War I, but the division never left the United States, as the war ended a little over two months after the division's activation. In 1943, the division was reactivated at Camp Swift, Texas during World War II; in 1944, 5,000 soldiers were stripped from the division and sent as replacements to other units in Europe. The division underwent amphibious assault training in 1944, but the high number of US losses in the Battle of the Bulge led to the 97th Infantry Division being deployed to Western Europe instead. The division had 600 officers and 14,000 men upon its deployment to Le Havre, France on 2 March 1945. On 28 March 1945, the division crossed the German border at Aachen, and it crossed the Rhine at Bonn on 3 April. The division entered the battle for the Ruhr Pocket that same month, and it entered Siegburg in North Rhine-Westphalia on 10 April. The division would take part in the liberation of concentration camps and the capture of Gestapo agents, and the division entered Czechoslovakia on 25 April 1945, taking Cheb. On 29 April 1945, the division attacked the Czechoslovak pocket near Weiden, Germany, and it advanced to Konstantinovy Lazne, where it ended the war on 7 May 1945. Shortly before midnight on 7 May 1945, a soldier of the division fired the last official shot of the European Theater when he shot at a German sniper near Klenovice, Czechoslovakia. The division left Le Havre on 16 June 1945 and took part in the occupation of Japan after the Japanese surrender in September 1945. The division was inactivated on 31 March 1946 at Yokohama, Japan.